16. But you will, perhaps,
say that the gods have indeed other forms, and that you have given the
appearance of men to them merely by way of honour, and for
form’s sake3969
| 3969
The ms. and first four edd. read
dotis causa—“for the sake of a dowry:”
corrected as above, dicis causa in the later edd. |
which is
much more insulting than to have fallen into any error through
ignorance. For if you confessed that you had ascribed to the
divine forms that which you had supposed and believed, your error,
originating in prejudice, would not be so blameable. But now,
when you believe one thing and fashion another, you both dishonour
those to whom you ascribe that which you confess does not
belong to
them, and show your impiety in adoring that which you fashion, not that
which you think really is, and which is in very
truth. If asses,
dogs, pigs,
3970
| 3970
This argument seems to have been suggested by the saying of
Xenophanes, that the ox or lion, if possessed of man’s power,
would have represented, after the fashion of their own bodies, the gods
they would worship. [“The fair humanities of old
religion.”—Coleridge
(Schiller).] |
had any human
wisdom and skill in contrivance, and wished to do us honour also by
some
kind of
worship, and to show respect by dedicating statues
to
us, with what
rage would they inflame us, what a
tempest of passion
would they excite, if they determined that our images should bear and
assume the fashion of their own bodies? How would they, I repeat,
fill us with
rage, and
rouse our passions, if the founder of
Rome,
Romulus, were to be set up with an ass’s face, the revered
Pompilius with that of a
dog, if under the image of a pig were written
Cato’s or Marcus Cicero’s name? So, then, do you
think that your stupidity is not
laughed at by your deities, if they
laugh at all? or, since you believe that they may be enraged,
do you think that they are not roused, maddened to fury, and
that they do not wish to be revenged for so great wrongs and insults,
and to hurl on you the punishments usually dictated by chagrin, and
devised by
bitter hatred? How much better it had been to give to
them the forms of elephants, panthers, or tigers, bulls, and
horses! For what is there beautiful in man,—what, I pray
you, worthy of admiration, or comely,—unless that which, some
poet
3971
| 3971
Ennius (Cic., de Nat. Deor., i. 35): Simia
quam similis, turpissima bestia, nobis. |
has
maintained, he possesses in common with the ape?
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